Cross-talk between TGF-β/Smad pathway and Wnt/β-catenin pathway in pathological scar formation

TGF-β1 is a key factor in the process of wound healing, which is regulated by TGF-β/Smad pathway. We previously demonstrated that TGF-β1 contributed to pathological scar formation. And previous studies also suggested Wnt/β-catenin pathway might be involved in wound healing. However, their role and relation in pathological scar formation remains not very clear. For evaluating TGF-β1 and β-catenin, key factors of the two signal pathways, immunohistochemistry, western blot analysis and RT-PCR were used. Simultaneously, immunohistochemistry were used to evaluate Smad2, Smad3 and Wnt-1, which were also the important factors. We found that they all significantly accumulated in pathological scars compared with normal skins (P<0.05), that implied the two signal pathways both contributed to pathological scar formation. Meanwhile, β-catenin expression showed a tendency to increase first and then decrease under the influence of different concentrations of TGF-β1 (P<0.01). It is possible that there is a complicated interaction between the two signal pathways in pathological scar formation (both synergy and antagonism).